The book has already been highly praised and featured as Waterstone's ‘recommended read' and had reviewers commenting: "Superb - I have read it twice and been moved to tears each time", "I really couldn't put it down..."
Sixty year-old Peter has led a life that resembles a patchwork-quilt of experiences. Born in Wolverhampton, he spent several years touring and recording as a drummer with several rock bands and then landed a job as a zoo-keeper in charge of primates. It was just a small step from that work to employment as a warden on a wildfowl research project and on to becoming a gamekeeper - eventually spending several years training gun dogs and managing a game farm in Oxfordshire. It was here that Peter first became involved with theatre work.
A further leap of faith sent him to Wolverhampton to manage a conservation project working with ex-convicts and rehabilitating drug addicts before theatre work took over completely.
Stints as a stage manager, then extensive touring work with some of the UK's seminal theatre companies, finally ended with the opportunity to move to Cornwall and take up his job at Hall for Cornwall. Peter's job as an HfC flyman see him perched high above the stage ensuring the scenery, backdrops and lights are all in the right position, at the right time, during a play or a concert.
Peter lives in Helston with his wife Marjorie, son Jake, and dogs Toffee and Fennel says the move to Cornwall also allowed him the opportunity to develop his talents as a writer.
"'Ladies of the Shire' started life as a screenplay in 2000 and was completed four years later. When finished, all the feedback was extremely favourable but it became obvious that it was unlikely to be taken up as a screenplay as it was by an unknown author and would probably cost around 10 to 12 million to produce; not an attractive proposition for what is a notoriously conservative industry," says Peter.
"After the realisation had sunk in, I decided, in 2005, to re-write the work as a novel, letting the expensive set pieces take place in the reader's imagination, just as exciting and a whole lot cheaper."
'Ladies of the Shire' is moving story of great depth and character that will have the reader laughing one minute and weeping the next.
Published by Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd, it is available from Waterstones, Amazon, WH Smith and independent book shops. It's also on sale at the Hall for Cornwall Box Office for £7.99.